At noon on Thursday Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief, informed the Hungarian news agency MTI that Prime Minister and President of Fidesz Viktor Orbán has written a letter to Matteo Salvini – the leader of the Italian party Lega, and until today a member of Italy’s government. In his letter Mr. Orbán expressed his appreciation and gratitude for the work recently done by Mr. Salvini for Italy and the whole of Europe, including Hungary.

Mr. Orbán wrote, “I wish to assure you that we Hungarians will never forget that you were the first Western European leader who sought to stop the influx of illegal migrants into Europe across the Mediterranean.”

In his letter to Mr. Salvini, the Hungarian prime minister continued: “Regardless of internal political developments in Italy and the fact that we belong to different European party families, we look upon you as a brother-in-arms in our battles for the preservation of European Christian heritage and the halting of migration. I wish you much success and good health in carrying out your future tasks.”

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)